A. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to methods and systems for designing and producing custom foams either for storage or transporting items having a plurality of receptacles for storing an item, and more particularly to a system for designing and producing storage or transport molds of the above referred nature, which selects the optimum layout for the receptacles of the foam and also selects the best position to place an identification tag as well as the reader if required, by means of artificial intelligence techniques such like neural networks and evolutionary algorithms.
B. Description of the Related Art
There are well known packaging or storage foams having a plurality of receptacles for storing items such as tools like in toolboxes in the workshops, jewelry, etc. The normal process for designing such packaging or storage foams is complicated and expensive in view of the work needed to produce each receptacle which needs to conform precisely to the shape of the item to be stored. This happens specially when the configuration for the foam is different every time like in the toolboxes at the workshops as every toolbox has a different set of tools with different brands and models depending on the type of job to perform and the users preferences. While in many industries the manufacture custom products that are different pretty often and the shape of the product to package or storage is different very often and it gets worse when multiple pieces need to be placed in the same foam or set of foams.
Said design process involves measuring or scanning each item so that the engineering team can design the packaging or storage foam and create the shape of each receptacle to be formed in said foam and distribute the layout of each receptacle using known design computer programs—which only aid to create shapes and forms. The complexity of the design process increases when the items to be stored are different from each other.
The complexity of the design process increases even more when there is a need to add identification means to each item such as RFID chips, since it is needed to analyze the form and function of each object in order to integrate the chip in the optimum place in the object so that said chip does not interfere with the item functions. Once the optimum places for integrating the chip have been determined for each item, it is needed to identify the optimum places in which the identification means reading means, such as RFID readers, should be placed in each receptacle—if required—in such a way that the reading capacity of each RFID reader is optimized in the correspondent range. The above design process needs to be carried out by qualified personal and is very expensive, takes a lot of time and is not very precise, especially when the packaging foam needs to be designed for storing many items.
US patent application No. 20060209062 of Drucker discloses a system for positioning objects in a container comprising: a module that receives parameters associated with placing an object in a container and calculates a location for the object in the container along a one-manifold embedded within the container. A one-manifold may be continuous, discontinuous, be contained entirely within a container or extent beyond a container. The one-manifold may be defined by a set of parameters defining a function, formula or set of points. The container may be a two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or n-dimensional container. Such a mechanism may be employed by a graphics application and may determine the location or positioning of an object or item. The object or item may be one of a set of objects or items. In response to receiving a set of parameters defining a one-manifold, the one-manifold may be embedded within a container. In response to receiving a set of parameters describing aspects of the object or item to be placed within the container, a set of x and y or x, y and z co-ordinates may be generated, which may be sent to a standard graphics interface for display.
Although Drucker's patent application discloses a system which is capable of distributing objects inside a container, it does not disclose the capability of designing packaging foams and creating the shape of a plurality of receptacles to be formed in said foam and distributing each receptacle in an optimum way. Furthermore, if there is needed to integrate identifications means to each item and identification means readers to each receptacle for reading said identifications means in each item, Drucker's patent application neither disclose the capability of finding the optimum places for integrating the chip in each item nor the capability of finding the optimum places in which the identification means reading means, such as RFID readers, should be placed in each receptacle.
In view of the above referred problems, applicant developed an automated system for producing custom layouts for storage or transport molds made of foam or any other malleable material used for storage or package items, which is capable of designing custom packaging made of foam (pads) or any other malleable material having a plurality of receptacles for storing a plurality of items.
Applicant's system is capable of determining if all items can be stored in a single pad or if another pad will be needed, finding the optimum distribution of each receptacle to be formed in each pad, finding the optimum places for integrating the chip in each item, and finding the optimum places in which the identification means reading means, such as RFID readers, should be placed in each receptacle by using artificial intelligence paradigms called neural networks and genetic algorithms.
The final product of Applicant's system is an electronic file containing the complete design of one or more custom packaging including the layout of each receptacle having the shape of each particular item that will define the cuts in the custom packaging and which can be provided to any computer controlled molding machine, and the optimum places where the identification means should be integrated in the items and the optimum places where the identification means readers should be placed in each receptacle—if required—.